As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. An option is an Information Handling System (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, global communications, etc. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Components of an IHS consume electrical power and can generate significant amounts of heat. Heat within an IHS may degrade the reliability and performance of various internal components of the IHS, possibly resulting in costly malfunctions and component failures. In order to internal components of the IHS and away from the internal components, an IHS may utilize a cooling fan, or a plurality of cooling fans organized within an airflow cooling system. As temperatures within the IHS increase, the cooling fans may be used to ventilate heated air from within the IHS, or from within certain internal compartments of the IHS. Certain IHSs may utilize a single cooling fan to ventilate heated air from within the IHS. Other IHSs may utilize complex airflow cooling systems that include one or more banks of cooling fans and a fan controller than is used to monitor and control the cooling fans.
The enclosure and chassis of the IHS may be configured such that the internal volume of the IHS is subdivided into multiple internal compartments. In certain scenarios, the processor(s) of the IHS may be located within one of these internal compartments. In such configurations, the cooling system of the IHS may include one or more cooling fans that can be used to ventilate heated air from within this internal compartment of the IHS that includes the processor(s). An IHS includes numerous cables and wires that may be used for carrying electrical signals and/or for supplying power. In certain IHS configurations, these cables and wires may be connected to components of the IHS that are located within an air-cooled compartment of the IHS. The crossing of these cables and wires into an air-cooled compartment of the IHS may result in air gaps that reduce the effectiveness of the cooling fan system in ventilating heated air from within the air-cooled compartment.